Now, once you hit the ocean at the end of Beach Blvd, it is very important that you take a right and go north, to the fun part of Huntington Beach with the downtown and the pier and everything. If you want to make the most of your Pacific experience, that is.
We, however, were content to slow down the car long enough to nod at the ocean, then make a U-turn back up the road, returning to a curious item we'd passed on the way:
Being a sucker for such things (although you probably shouldn't ask how my previously blogged big plans for conservation of the local pet cemetery are going at the moment), we of course had to take a look.
Sea Breeze Pet Cemetery is a really great place. Very clean, very looked-after, very festive this time of year, and there were visitors the whole time we were there. I was highly impressed.
There is a special "Cats Only" section, which made me laugh. (It's just such a cat thing to do.) But I was not prepared to have my heart warmed by the section just for "Misc":
(I only had the pocket camera, so these aren't the best snaps.) As you can see, a fair number of markers have photos of the pet on them, which is really nice. It's also not just a recent trend, as these markers from 1975 and 1963 show:
A surprising number of gravesites had been done up for the holidays. Overall it was sweet, but the waterworks came when I got to this one:
The card reads, "K.C. Your favorite treat. Merry Christmas."
Inside the bag was a can of Chicken of the Sea.
(If you think I typed the last two paragraphs without having to take a moment, you're wrong.)
But I was even more touched and amazed when I saw this:
Shadow Hannefield passed away in 1966. 1966. Shadow has been gone 42 years, and someone is still putting out a Christmas spread for him or her, right down to the little Milkbone on the marker. If that doesn't cheer your heart, I don't know what will.
Then we left, checked in, went to the parks, rode a bunch of stuff that was practically a walk-on (no wait for Splash Mountain, if that gives you a clue), enjoyed the Christmas transformations of It's a Small World and Haunted Mansion, zipped around on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, drifted through Pirates without a single LCD screen in sight, chose not to wait 45 minutes to ride Finding Nemo (even though it was a "record low wait time" for the week - a decision I even more firmly stand behind after seeing it on YouTube), and rode the monorail "downtown" to watch Enchanted. (Not a highbrow film, no, but still a fun thing to watch when in the heart of Disneyland.)
Oh, and we settled for burgers at Tomorrowland Terrace because all the nicer sit-down places were booked up, some for the rest of the week. I wasn't thrilled with the way the guy at Blue Bayou acted like we should know that - maybe they should put up a sign? - but it didn't matter; Disney makes a rather tasty veggie burger, actually.
After the movie it was after midnight, so we headed back to the room and again stayed up very late, this time watching the Twilight Zone marathon while I dipped in and out of Ender's Game.
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